1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an analog electronic timepiece with a hand.
2. Related Art
Known typical analog electronic timepieces have time measurement functions such as a stopwatch (chronograph) function and a timer function. In some of the analog electronic timepieces, a second(s) elapsed during time measurement is indicated by a second hand for indicating the current time (see, for instance, Patent Literature 1: JP-A-2013-228258).
An analog timepiece with a chronograph function disclosed in Patent Literature 1 includes a second hand with two functions: indicating the second(s) of the current time in a normal time mode and indicating the second(s) of the measured time (chronograph second(s)) in a stopwatch mode.
However, in the analog timepiece with the chronograph function disclosed in Patent Literature 1, the second(s) of the current time (current second(s)) and the second(s) elapsed during time measurement (measured second(s)) are indicated by a single second hand, so that it is necessary to determine whether the second hand indicates the current second(s) or the measured second(s).
The analog timepiece with the chronograph function disclosed in Patent Literature 1 also includes a 1/10-second chronograph hand and/or a 1/100-second chronograph hand that are driven not in the normal time mode but in the stopwatch mode. Therefore, it can be determined whether the analog timepiece works in the normal time mode or in the stopwatch mode based on the movement of these chronograph hands (i.e., whether the second hand indicates the current second(s) or the measured second(s)).
However, as compared with the second hand, the 1/10-second chronograph hand and the 1/100-second chronograph hand move at a short hand-movement time interval and thus require a large electric power to be driven. Therefore, in order to save electric power, the chronograph hands are sometimes stopped after the elapse of a predetermined time (e.g., one minute) from the start of time measurement irrespective of whether or not the time measurement is continued. However, in the above case, it cannot be determined whether the second hand indicates the current second(s) or the measured second(s).
Alternatively, an additional hand may be provided to indicate whether the analog timepiece works in the normal time mode or in the stopwatch mode. However, when the movement range of the additional hand is small, it is difficult to clearly determine in which mode the analog timepiece works.